U.S. Pat. No. 5,391,879 to Tran et al. discloses a radiation detector which includes an array 16 of pixelized sensors 15 and an overlying array 12 of phosphor pixels 11 with a fiber optic network in between (elements 17 and 17 in FIG. 1). See Col. 1, lines 10-23. This reference discloses one layer of sensor elements rather than a pair of sensor arrays on either side of a phosphor layer. Therefore, this device suffers from loss of efficiency due to loss of a portion of the light emanating from the phosphor layer in a direction away from the pixelized sensors.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,170 to Cox et al. discloses an X-ray imaging system and a solid state detector used therewith. FIG. 16 shows a scintilator positioned between two layers, one containing a sensor element and another containing preprocessors. See Col. 1, lines 25-30.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that the prior art devices suffer from a loss in resolution because the spaces between adjacent pixels are not active as detectors. The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth.